1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, and in particular, to a GPS receiver with improved power management and relaxed part specifications.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of GPS in consumer products has become commonplace. Hand-held devices used for mountaineering, automobile navigation systems, and GPS for use with cellular telephones are just a few examples of consumer products using GPS technology.
As GPS technology is being combined with these devices, the GPS chips are being placed in widely ranging applications. Initially, GPS chips were designed for surveying applications, and, as such, the chip and system design was engineered to provide highly accurate positioning measurements and data, without regard to power consumption, semiconductor chip footprint, or other conditions. The GPS chip design was optimized to deliver position data, rather than optimized for each application the chip is being placed into. Further, some of the GPS portions are being made on the same semiconductor chip as other portions of the combined devices, which subjects the GPS portions of these electronic devices to widely-varying semiconductor processing steps.
Since the GPS chips are now being placed into devices that are far afield from the initial intended use for GPS, it can be seen, then, that there is a need in the art to alter the design of the GPS hardware to match the requirements of the intended end-user device and environment.